By MOLLY YANITY, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, September 5, 2008

BYU quarterback Max Hall says the "quest for perfection" is not about the 15th-ranked Cougars charging undefeated into a BCS bowl come January.

"A lot of people get mixed up with the 'quest for perfection' and think we're telling people we're going to go 12-0," Hall said of the team's bold motto.

"It's really something that is kind of in our school's mission statement, and it's about doing the best we can in life. On the football field, of course we want to try to be perfect, work hard every play, don't hold anything back."

A successful quest would land BYU -- which has finished 11-2 the past two seasons -- in a BCS bowl, but anything less keeps the Cougars in a minor bowl and out of the big time.

Standing in BYU's way Saturday is a Washington Huskies team on a simple quest of its own -- to rebound from an embarrassing 44-10 loss to archrival Oregon in their season debut.

Two teams with starkly different missions.

Beating a Pac-10 team isn't something new to the back-to-back Mountain West champions. Since the BCS rankings were put into effect in 1998, BYU has defeated the Huskies in addition to Arizona, Arizona State and Cal twice.

Despite a 27-17 loss to UCLA in the second game of 2007, BYU defeated the Bruins 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl for its second consecutive bowl victory over a Pac-10 team. The Cougars beat Oregon 38-8 in the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl.

However, since 1998, the Cougars are 2-15 against nonconference opponents on the road, including losses in their past eight attempts.

"I wish I could tell you that I was considering the BCS," Mendenhall said. "It's probably a disappointment to our fans and maybe even some of our team members, but this game to me is really not more important than our Northern Iowa game."

BYU opened the season with a 41-17 win over the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team.

"I know there are all kinds of outside things at stake," Mendenhall said "But it's not fair to the players, coaches or anyone else to say that this game is a must win. We try our best in every game."

Mendenhall has studied and game-planned for the Huskies, but he is more focused on the mirror.

"Most of our focus -- if I can give you a core philosophical approach to our program -- is to only acknowledge ourselves, anyway," he said. "So our entire focus is to improve our football team. Washington happens to be the next opponent."

Still, Mendenhall did see the Huskies miss tackles in their season opener. He saw them not hold blocks and flounder in the run game, but concentration remains on his own team.

"When you consider the (UW-Oregon) game itself, I believe the game for much of the time was closer than the final score ended up being," Mendenall said.

"I think there is some relative youth that Washington is working through, obviously a new defensive coordinator against a very difficult scheme to defend in Oregon, and so I'm not sure it was the best indicator as to what kind of team Washington really has," he said. "But our focus isn't so much measuring ourselves against Washington. It's really about what areas we can work on to reach our potential. That's been our approach the last couple of years."

One thing that does have Mendenhall concerned is the potential danger Huskies quarterback Jake Locker poses.

Locker led the Huskies in rushing against Oregon with 57 net yards and proved his explosiveness.

"I haven't seen anybody like Locker," Mendenhall said. "He's absolutely an exciting and a phenomenal player."

Mendenhall said the onus is on his entire defense to keep track of Locker.

"It (takes) all 11 because they're running the option with him. So, he gets out of the pocket and he can throw it well -- which is the secondary. He gets out of the pocket and he needs to be contained -- which is the linebackers. Or he pulls the ball down and runs when he goes back to pass, and that's on the defensive front," he explained.

Against Oregon, Locker produced 160 of the Huskies' 242-yard total on offense, so Mendenhall figures slowing the big sophomore slows Washington.

"(We must) stay in the system," Mendenhall said. "We're going to have to because, literally, you can't run the quarterback every play and he can't take the game into his own hands every play -- the durability factor becomes an issue."

Locker often looked gassed against Oregon -- partly because he was under so much pressure from the defense, but also because of a hamstring strained early in camp.

"I don't know if I was struggling, but I didn't feel as fast as I normally am," Locker said. "But I think that's just something that'll come with time. It didn't bother me -- it didn't catch or anything, it didn't feel sore while I was playing."

Coach Tyrone Willingham said Locker was obviously not 100 percent, but maintained his quarterback practiced without limitation this week.

"Any time that a quarterback has the ability to create the way Locker does, it takes all 11 doing their job," Mendenhall said. "It probably won't be a minus-yardage play, but if we can get out of those plays with relative gains, then possibly just the numbers over time will work in our favor."

That would be detrimental to Willingham's job security, which is already shaky after an 11-26 record in three-plus seasons.

Therein lies the Huskies' quest.

Locker knows the coach's situation and is aware how critical his talents are to the Huskies offense. Still, Locker shrugs off the obvious insinuations and focuses on the relevant.

"Like I've said before," Locker said, "(Willingham is) our head coach, he's our leader, we look to him, and he doesn't let it bother him, and we treat it the same way. He's here to win games and so are we. We all understand that and we know that, and that's our main focus."